The invention relates to a removable truck top frame for military vehicles, referred to as the Family of Medium Tactical Vehicles (FMTV""s). The purpose of the frame is to support a tarpaulin or other fabric cover or top on the cargo portion or bed of a truck. Military trucks require versatility for transporting equipment as well as troops. In either case, it is common practice to shield the troops or cargo from wind and weather by means of canvas covers stretched over metal bows or frames which are detachably mounted on the side walls of the truck bed.
The general concept of a removable canvas top truck supported by a tubular frame is old in the art, as exemplified in the patents to Lander, U.S. Pat. No. 2,692,795, which teaches a somewhat similar tubular frame structure breaking down bows 20 with uprights 15 by hinges 17 and is incapable of inserting the upright members in their stake pockets separately.
The patent to Davis, U.S. Pat. No. 5,353,826, breaks the bows down into two pieces rather than three and does not use conventional stake pockets in the truck bed. The patent to Strother, U.S. Pat. No. 5,186,513, breaks bows down into five pieces rather than three and also does not use stake pockets.
The present design is for a family of military trucks, with different sizes and configurations, that are known collectively as the xe2x80x9cFMTV""sxe2x80x9d. The truck cover is a canvas covering which goes over the cargo bed area of the truck. The skeletal tubular steel structure upon which the cover is placed consists of a plurality of longitudinal spaced bows supporting a series of purlins between each bow. The bows span the truck cargo bed from side to side. One is located in the front of the bed, one at the rear and either one or two in between, thus having two or three bays between the bows. There are a series of rafters supported by the purlins running parallel to the bows and therebetween. As the vertical sides of the bow extend to the top of the bow there is a transitional section positioned at approximately 45 degrees to both the vertical and horizontal sections of the bow. The assembled bows weigh 30 pounds each and are over five feet tall at the center and approximately seven-and-one-half feet wide. In order to lift a bow, the normal method is to grab the bow at its center and raise it overhead. The stake pockets within which the ends of the bows have to be inserted are located along the edges of the sides of the truck bed. Unfortunately the holes are outboard of the side panel of the truck bed and are therefore not visible from the center of the truck bed. It is near impossible for a single installer to thread the ends of the bows into their respective pockets which sometimes cannot be seen. Even if possible for the installer to be fortunate enough to insert one of the bow ends into its pocket without actually seeing the hole, it would be impossible to insert the other end of the bow into the hole on the opposite side of the truck bed since the opposite bow end is already inserted approximately 6 inches into its hole and it would be difficult to bend the uninstalled end of the bow upward and inward sufficiently enough to permit it to engage and align with its hole. The result is the bows require two individuals to install them on the truck bed, one on each end of the bow, and they must install their respective ends into the holes at the same time so the vertical sections of the bow do not cock and bind in the holes.
Each of the bows of the present invention can be installed by a single person and they do not have the above-mentioned problems. Each bow is comprised of three separate sections, a horizontal section and two vertical sections. The horizontal section has transitional sections on both ends. The two vertical sections also have a transitional section at the upper end thereof. The vertical sections of the bows are inserted one at a time with the ends of each bow positioned in their respective pockets located on opposite sides of the truck bed.
The horizontal section is axially aligned to engage the mating joint on the upper end of one vertical section. The joint at the opposite end of the horizontal section engages the other vertical section by retracting the sliding male pin and aligning that male pin with the upper end of the opposite transitional section whereby the sliding pin may be extended into that section creating an assembled bow with non-rotating joints between sections of the bows.
It is therefore the principal object of the invention to provide a truck top tubular frame structure which can be assembled or disassembled by a single person.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a truck top frame structure which breaks down into a minimal package size for shipment when not in use.
A further object of the present invention is to provide a series of joints in a truck top frame wherein the purlins between the bows can be inserted in place without the danger of other purlins already in place, falling as the bows are spread.